Feature discussion: PDF export profiles

[BN_Dev]

Hi all,

^^ With regards to this post ^^

An essential feature we need is something analogous to PDF output styles in QuarkXPress.  See QuarkXPress 2023 User Guide: Default PDF Output Style.

Essentially in Scribus the File->Export->Save as PDF screen has hundreds of options.  That is great, but it is also a double-edge sword.  Our real-world use case requires us to generate quite different PDFs of the same document for different things, with often very different settings that it's easy to make a mistake with.

In QuarkXPress you can capture all the input control values as an "output profile" and it appears in a drop-down.  Choosing the profile on the PDF export screen allows you to immediately set hundreds of controls and options to exactly what is needed, without missing anything or making mistakes.

For example, our RIP PDF's have to be 300dpi, single PDF per page, without any compression, all composite, without annotations, flattened transparency etc. etc.  But the PDFs we make for the digital version are a single file, at 72dpi, with all the annotations enabled, and embedded thumbnails etc. etc.  We have profiles for advertisers proofs; internal copy proofs; and more.  Automatically setting hundreds of options enables the workflow very efficiently.

We considered a few ways that this could be achieved by saving the PDF output profiles:

• Using an external script to set them; but requires installing and going to 2 places rather than just the PDF output screen
• Embedding them in the .sla file; super portable but bloats the files and hard to update centrally
• Saved in the program configuration; would require lots of exacting setup on each new installation and then further updates
• In a custom folder that can be set in the program config the same as a font path and profile path; much easier to update on a central file share

After considering all these things, I think the last option would be best because it also allows Scribus to ship with some sensible defaults to get new users started.  If there is a print-ready profile, a screen-only profile, an Amazon Kindle profile, etc. this would let users get started easily on one of the most complex aspects of publishing.

Professional users could remove or replace these with what their organization's particular RIP or other processes requires.

We envisioned at the top of the PDF export window would be a drop-down to choose a profile, and then the user could tweak the settings (if required) before the actual export.  We also considered that it could be possible for a feature in the profile data to allow an attribute to mark certain presets to be disabled so they cannot be changed by the user; so if giving a profile to an employee they could not accidentally change essential values before exporting that would cause problems further down the production line.

Many thanks,
Paul

[a.l.e]

I like the idea of a directory with multiple files in it, each one being a definition of a profile.

My suggestion is that all options that are not defined in the profile, will get the default value.

[BN_Dev]

Apologies for delay in replying, work issues and vacationing!

I'm going to spend some time prototyping some ideas to see what does and doesn't work and present some results for critique and direction back here when I have something to show.

Definitely agree that the one-file-per-profile approach is the smartest and undefined values get defaulted